Mason-Grant

Mason-Grant provides technical research, training, facilitating and publishing for companies, institutions, building owners, government agencies and fellow consultants. Typical topics include: humidity control & drying, desiccant systems, moisture problems in buildings, engineering weather data and HVAC systems. Our projects have included both the theoretical and applied aspects of these topics, as well as related market research and new product development.

How We Work

When a project is very brief, or when the client wants ongoing access to our information, or needs advice only on an intermittent basis, we consult at our standard rate of $225/hr.

More frequently, we work on a project basis. Based on an initial no-cost consultation, we’ll develop a not-to-exceed cost estimate based on our standard hourly rate. This approach provides a defined result for a defined cost.

When a project is lengthy or complex, we usually suggest proceeding in stages, which allows the project to expand or contract as more is learned and as the clients needs become further refined in light of the information obtained.

We welcome your initial questions and inquiries by telephone. Our policy on telephone questions is simple. If the information is in our heads and we can relate the answer verbally... it’s free. We’re glad to answer questions and to have conversations on the telephone, including international calls.

Please note, however, that whenever a caller or client asks us to send an email response, or to locate and transmit information electronically or by mail, or asks us for any form of written communication, that effort is charged at $225/hr.

The only exception to the “free phone information” policy is any information which would compromise the interests of any current or past client. Naturally, their interests and their private information is held confidential in perpetuity.

Corporate Structure

Lew Harriman was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) in 2010, based on his work for Mason-Grant clients over 35 years as reviewed by his peers within the Society.

The firm was founded in 1986 by Lewis G. Harriman III. It is operated as a proprietorship, and is a small business as defined by the U.S. Federal Government. Our Dun & Bradstreet record number is 62-314-9770. Our Federal Government CAGE Code (contractor identification number) is 6YQZ6.

The Mason-Grant Name

Clients sometimes ask us: "Who are Mason and Grant"? or "How'd you come up with the name Mason-Grant"?

Portsmouth New Hampshire and its surrounding forests were known to the English colonists in 1629 as "The Mason Grant", because the land was granted by King Charles I to Captain John Mason. We turned that historical fact into our company name.

As a successful entrepreneur with an international perspective, eclectic interests and talents in many areas, John Mason serves as a wholly suitable spirit-in-residence for Mason-Grant Consulting.

About Captain John Mason 1586 - 1635

In 1610, King James I of England and Scotland appointed John Mason as a Captain, and commissioned him to equip two ships with soldiers to bring order to the settlements on the Hebrides Islands and to protect Andrew Knox, their newly-appointed Scottish Bishop. The King directed that the expenses for the mission be borne by Mason... and reimbursed by the Scottish treasury.

Mason accomplished the task with distinction, returning for reimbursement two years later. Unfortunately, the Scottish treasurer, the Earl of Dunbar, had recently died. No money was available to cover the debt of £2,238 sterling.

In fact, although many attempts were made to reimburse Mason though government appointments, he never got paid. The debt had mounted to £12,489 by 1629, ... a cautionary tale for consultants who fail to collect promptly from powerful clients with seemingly solid credit ratings.

Mason did not appear to let this annoy him. He continued in loyal and extensive service to both King James (the fellow who commissioned the “King James” version of the English Bible) and his son, King Charles I (who later lost his head in a dispute with the English Parliament).

In 1615, John Mason was appointed Royal Governor of Newfoundland in North America, a colony that had been established five years earlier. By contemporary accounts he did a good job, chasing away pirates, protecting fishing, and adding to navigation and chart knowledge of the North Atlantic coast.

Between 1620 and 1622, he performed various tasks both civil and military along the New England Coast. In 1622, Mason and a partner were awarded the first of three land grants in what is now Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.

The third of the grants, or "patents," was given by the New England Council in 1629 acting under King Charles' authority. It gave Mason the right to develop a colony or "plantation" on the land between the Merrimac and Piscataqua rivers. This is basically today's 13 miles of New Hampshire seacoast. The 1629 document is the first time the land is called "New Hampshire" —though contemporary accounts also referred to it as "The Mason Grant."